4 8 THE SALMON 



fish in a rocky pool is indeed no contemptible 

 adversary, and a tussle with such a one may be an 

 experience to last a lifetime. Well for you if you 

 know the bottom of the water, for, depend upon it, 

 the fish does, and will be ready to take advantage of 

 any submerged stump or boulder if you give him 

 the chance. Nothing, of course, can check his wild 

 impetuous rushes when the reel screams and the 

 line hisses through the water, but it is astonishing 

 how he may be led and directed if you know how to 

 do it. But such knowledge cannot be communicated 

 in writing, and comes only by instinct and practice. 

 A few general rules of universal application are all 

 that I can offer. Keep a good strain on your fish from 

 the first moment you hook him, and keep as much 

 line on the reel as you can. It is better to follow 

 the fish, if possible, than to let him run out much 

 of the line, for the weight of the water on a great 

 length is apt to bring the strain upon the hold in 

 the wrong angle ; and if the salmon tries the common 

 manoeuvre of a rapid turn and a dash up-stream, 

 it is not always easy to reel up so fast as to prevent 

 him from making the line slack for a moment or 

 two ; when, of course, he has a good chance of 

 ridding himself of the fly. Now he leaps high 

 into the air, and the point of the rod must be 



